Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Secaucus

UPDATE - 8/18/24 Opened in Orlando in 1982, this chain establishment became famous for its Italian American fare and "never-ending" breadsticks and soup or salad. Located off of Route 3 West in Secaucus, this was the closest Olive Garden in our area. My partner and I struck gold as some parking spaces closest to the entrance were available for lunch today on a Sunday around 1230pm. Upon entering, we were greeted by the staff and made it to a booth after a short 5-minute wait. Their menu mostly consisted of classic pasta dishes and more creative ones, plus soups, chicken dishes, and appetizers like calamari and toasted Ravioli. We decided on the Shrimp Scampi and Chicken Alfredo with broccoli. Each entrée came with breadsticks and opted for salad consisting of lettuce, onions, pepperoncini, and tomatoes with delicious Italian dressing. Everything was so fresh and tasty. The portions were huge, perfectly cooked, and we knew we'd be eating leftovers. The only difference was the size of the shrimp was much smaller than the previous visit. We even saved some room and got a slice of strawberry cream cake—a vanilla sponge layered with vanilla cream and topped with strawberries—to share. The meal remained surprisingly delicious and felt well worth the price, especially considering salad and breadsticks were included with our entrées. We continue to recommend this place. ———————- Some regard the Olive Garden as not authentic Italian food which is true. However where could one find an establishment that offers bottomless soup or salad with breadsticks. My partner and I have been to this location in Secaucus numerous times. Being a Friday night, joined their waitlist online and it worked to avoid the long wait upon arriving for dinner. Their menu has a large selection of dishes which some are good while others average as with most chain restaurants. Our servers were the tag team of Carlos and Kevin. Skipped the appetizers and went for our entrees consisting of Chicken Marsala Fettuccine (Chicken sautéed with spinach and mushrooms in a creamy marsala mushroom sauce served over fettuccine) and Shrimp Scampi (Shrimp sautéed in a homemade lemon-garlic butter sauce, tossed with fresh grape tomatoes and angel hair). With the entrees, we opted for the endless salad with parmesan cheese accompanied with garlic bread sticks. The food didn't take that long to come out which was tasty and nicely seasoned. We even left room for dessert and shared a Strawberry Cream Cake (Vanilla sponge cake layered with sweet vanilla cream and topped with fresh strawberries). We thoroughly enjoyed our food, price reasonable and service good which we could...

Changing my review. Is it me? I ordered online, and two places where it gave me opportunity, I said, "Please no onions/scallions/chives - allergy." They lazily sent me a pre-made salad with onions on it, I was trying to prevent that because not to be picky, but then I can't eat it, it literally makes me sick. so I called them, I get passed along twice, and then a manager says to me that he's going to refund me half my order. Ok, I just wanted a salad that I could eat, but alright. Right??? Wrong. I was never refunded anything, nor did they just send me another salad like I would have preferred, so absolutely nothing was done to make good on it, just wasted my time in phone conversations and on hold. I realize things can get busy. I also realize that we are in an economy where people are struggling more and more and in all too many cases trying to work through the stress of not receiving livable wages. So I would have been fine getting past this had they one way or another made it right, but seriously, am I being so picky that I keep finding places that I don't feel inclined to go back to not so much because of the food but because of the service? Unavoidable human fact that for absolutely any business, you can never promise that nothing is going to go wrong, but you can promise that if and when it does, you respond professionally in resolving it as best and punctually as you can. The lack of follow-through on this, which I would have completely missed had I not checked back two mornings later to give it time, to me is good reason not to give them business again. I'm not looking for perfection in reliability, but I am looking for professionalism and accountability in it, and this experience most certainly wasn't it. Done. And no I don't want to be contacted because I already spent time on the phone with them which should have...

My daughter, granddaughter and I were on a trip to NYC and were staying at a hotel in Secaucus. There were 25 restaurants nearby, but we decided on this Olive Garden a few miles away. It wasn't very busy when we arrived so we were seated pretty quickly. It was freezing in the restaurant and we were seated near the door, which didn't help. Upon seating, we realized that half the menu was missing. We have been to our local Olive Garden many times and there was so much more offered on their menu. It took longer than it should for our server to come, but she was pleasant. She took our drink and appetizer order and brought the drinks. We had to ask for the appetizer because it took so long. We ordered dinner, which we were told several times was coming right out but didn't, and we had to ask twice for silverware. The server brought our meals and left all the dirty dishes from the appetizer, even though we had stacked them on the end of the table. My daughter's Chicken Marsala was dry and lacking sauce, which she was going to use on her plain pasta. The pasta was dry and rubbery. It even looked that way, but they still served it. My Stuffed Shells were ok, but the pasta that wasn't covered with sauce had the same dried out look. We asked for the manager and told him about it being cold, which he agreed with, and about the condition of the food. He said that he would turn up the heat and make an adjustment on the bill, but did not offer to serve my daughter something else. They only took $10 off the bill, even though my daughter's meal was inedible. All in all, the first night of our trip was a big disappointment. We will continue to dine in our local Olive Garden, but would NEVER eat here again and definitely recommend that no one else...